How I met your Mother
by Ana Hazel
Summary: Luke and Mara explain to their kids how they met. Features my OC 5 year-old twins Serena and Samira / Massive spoilers for Timothy Zahn's 'Thrawn Trilogy'.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: How I met your Mother

**Author**: Hazel

**Genre**: fluff, mush, humor

**Characters**: Skywalker family, OCs included

**Timeframe**: 35 ABY

**Summary**: Luke and Mara explain to their kids how they met.

**Author's notes**: This is set on my Whispers of the Force AU; the killiks were taken care of before they became a nuisance.

**Disclaimer**:The Star Wars Universe does not belong to me (unfortunately). I just like to play with it.

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><p><em><strong>* <span>How I met your Mother<span> *  
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**Part 1**

Luke Skywalker was having a very good day. The galaxy was at peace, the Order was thriving, he hadn't had to argue with annoying politicians in almost a week and he'd be home with his family in about ten more minutes. Mara had finished her classes early that day and Ben was old enough to go home on his own and was probably already in since it was almost dinnertime.

Soon enough, he would be able to snuggle with his very pregnant, very beautiful wife on their couch, watch their kids play and discuss names for their soon-to-be new addition to the family. A new addition that was due any day now and still had no name.

All Luke had to do was to swing by Tionne's class and pick up his five year-old twin girls.

Even before he walked through the classroom door, he knew it would not be that easy.

As Luke entered the room, he saw his little blond-haired angels sitting in a corner, one red-eyed and teary and the other gazing defiantly to anyone who dared to look at them. It was a gaze Luke was very used to see on their mother's eyes.

Looking to the opposite corner, Luke saw two boys, one of them with a big red mark splashed across his cheek and the other covered with pink ink. The rest of the children were playing around, but turned silent as soon as each and every single one of them saw him.

When they saw their daddy coming in, the twins almost ran to him but stopped themselves remembering they were grounded.

"Ok, what happened?" Luke asked Tionne.

"The children had a little disagreement and I had to give them time-out." Tionne informed him in her maternal tone that reminded Luke what a shame it was that his friend and colleague never got to have children of her own.

"About what?"

"That I couldn't tell you because I don't know. No one is talking. All I know is that Cal and Thom said something to your girls. Something that was offensive enough to make Serena cry and Samira lash out at them. Which reminds me, Samira needs to work on controlling her temper."

It was typical. His little girls were as different on the inside as they were equal on the outside. Serena was the calm and sweet one, living up to her name, she had inherited her father's temper. Samira, on the other hand, was fiery and fiercely loyal, just like her mother. Together, they balanced each other perfectly and were always in perfect tune, just like their parents.

"I'll make sure she does, Tionne. And I'll find out what happened."

Luke gestured for the girls to come and he led them out of their classroom.

Their short way home was made in silence; something very unusual to these girls and Luke could tell that they were still upset about what had happened in the classroom. It had to be something serious.

By the time they reached the door to their homestead, Luke had decided that he would definitely have to pry the truth out of them or there would be no easy sleep that night. His decision was further substantiated when, at the sight of their mother, both girls took a step back and almost started to cry.

This did not go unnoticed by Mara or Ben who were in the living room, the mother helping the son with his homework.

"What happened?" She asked with obvious concern.

"I don't know yet, but we're about to be told. Right, girls?" Luke affirmed, picking each girl up and sitting them on their usual high chairs by the table, where they could be at eye level, and then sat down himself.

"So," he started, "which of you is going to tell us what happened?"

Both girls looked at their fidgeting fingers, their Force-sense filling with embarrassment and their emerald green eyes with tears.

"Samira, why did you hit Cal?" Luke asked the girl on the left. He knew it would be easier to start unraveling the events if he took charge and asked objective questions.

At his question, Mara turned to him questioningly and he sent her a mental picture of the two boys through their bond. Mara had to hold herself to not laugh at the sight of Thom Kricter's head covered with pink ink.

Samira looked up timidly and then down again before answering her father's question. When she did, her voice was low and shaky.

"He said something."

"What did he say?" Mara asked in the gentle but firm tone she saved for her kids.

"It was a lie." Serena answered instead of her sister.

"What was it?" Mara insisted.

The girls' faces were turning red and they were about to start crying and Luke picked one up and, sitting her on his lap, asked again very gently.

"He said Mommy tried to kill you, Daddy. But it's a lie, it's a lie." She cried out, heavy tears running down her face.

"Oh, it's that story!" Ben blurted out excitingly, receiving admonishing glances from both his parents.

Serena's revelation brought creepy jitters to Mara's stomach. She knew that, one day, she would have to tell the truth about how she and Luke had met as well as about her state of mind at the time, but hoped it wouldn't be for a good many years, even though some parts of the account had already made it to Ben's ears and he asked them from time to time. She had always managed to keep her son's curiosity under control without revealing the complete truth. Deep inside, Mara was afraid that the truth would make her children look at her differently.

But now the situation demanded that the truth be revealed.

"Honey, Sweetie," Luke spoke softly to both his little girls, "that is not really a lie."

Both girls' eyes widened in shock - their mommy had tried to kill their daddy?

"But that's not exactly right, either," he continued. "We're going to tell you the whole story and you're going to see that it's really a funny story. Right, Mommy?"

Mara took a deep breath, allowing for the Force to wash away her nervousness. She trusted Luke completely and she would let him tell the story as he saw fit, although she always failed to see the humor in it.

"That's right, Daddy, we will. Right after dinner."

"Astral!" Ben's excitement was palpable in the Force.

-TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

_Part 2_

After dinner, the Skywalkers gathered around the couch with the kids sitting in front of it, on the floor.

The girls were still preoccupied about the contents of the story, but Ben was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. He was finally going to hear the whole story about how his mom had tried to kill his dad.

He couldn't quite remember when it was that he had heard the first rumors about this particular part of his family's history, but he remembered that he too had been upset by it. But of course that was until he figured out that it couldn't possibly be that bad because - you know - his father was still very much alive and Ben was sure that, if his mom had _really_ wanted his dad dead, he would be. Another clue pointing to his theory was the fact that every time he asked his aunt or uncle about it, they chuckled and told him to ask his parents.

Considering all the factors, Ben was absolutely sure that this story was bond to be a good one.

Calling up everyone's attention, Luke started to recount the story.

"This started a few months before your cousins Jaina and Jacen were born. The Emperor had been dead for five years, but the Empire was still kicking and it had a new supreme commander, a Chiss called Thrawn."

"Was Mommy with Thrawn?" Ben interrupted.

"No, Honey. I was not with the Empire then."

"But you were before?" The boy insisted, since he had already heard something about his mom working for the Emperor, and if he was getting answers, he wanted all of them.

"You worked for-"

"- the Empire, Mommy?" The girls asked in astonishment. All the youngling knew about the Empire and the Rebellion.

"I think we need to go a little further back." Mara stated disgruntled, turning to her husband.

He took her hand in his, holding it warmly, and nodded. Then he explained: "The Emperor was a bad man and he took Mommy away from her Mommy when she was very little."

"He trained me and told me I had to work for him," Mara picked up where Luke had stopped. "And I did, I became the Emperor's Hand. Well, one of them, although I didn't know it at the time." She added, regret showing in the voice.

"The Emperor made Mommy do bad things for him, but she didn't know they were bad things because he lied to her. That's why Mommy was never bad." Luke finished, leaning in to place a tender loving kiss on Mara's cheek.

"Poor Mommy!" The girls said in unison and got up to kiss and hug Mommy. Even Ben, who was going through a no-cuddling phase, because he was a very grown up eight year-old, got up from the floor and hugged his mom tightly.

Needless to say that her kids' display of tenderness brought a tear to pregnant hormonal Mara.

"Was it the mean Emperor that told you to kill Daddy, Mommy?" Samira inquired, still clutching to Mara's arm.

"Yes, Sweetie, it was. That was the Emperor's last command to me."

"Was it because he didn't want you to love Daddy more than him?" Serena asked, from Mara's other side and her question made both her parents snicker.

"Yes, Honey. That's exactly why he did it." Mara answered, still giggling. She wasn't about to explain the intricacies of vengeance to her five year-olds.

"The Emperor was a very bad man!" Serena stated, matter-of-factly and shaking her curly-blond hair. Her affirmation drawing more chuckles from her parents and older brother.

"Go on, Dad." Ben said, sitting back down alone. His sisters had decided to stay on the couch, Samira sitting on its arm, next to Mara, and Serena taking a little space between their parents.

"Right! As I was saying, Thrawn was in charge of what remained of the Empire and found an old fortress where the Emperor used to stash his most prized and secret stuff."

"Was Mommy there?" Serena asked, thinking that the Emperor might have tucked her Mommy away there, like she was used to do with her favorite doll.

"No Honey, I had already left the Empire's service then and was working for Uncle Talon."

"With Aunt Shada?" Samira asked. She really liked Aunt Shada.

"No, Aunt Shada came along a _lot_ later." Mara clarified.

"So, anyway, Thrawn had found the Emperor's hidden fortress and guarding it was a mean clone called C'baoth who was a dark Jedi and they started working together. Now C'baoth wanted apprentices and decided that Aunt Leia's would be perfect for the job, but since they weren't even born yet, he decided I would make a good apprentice. So he asked his new friend, Thrawn, to capture me."

"This was how I met your Mommy: Thrawn set up this trap for me and I managed to get away but damaged my x-wing's hyperdrive in the process. So I was floating in space with nowhere to go when a Corellian freighter found me and rescued me - it was Uncle Talon's ship and Mommy was onboard. As a matter of fact, it was Mommy who brought the _Wild Karrde_ out of hyperspace just at the right time to save me."

"Wait, was Mom saving you or trying to kill you?" Ben asked, obviously confused. This was not how he was expecting this story to go.

"Ok, let me explain something here: rescuing your father that day was sort of an accident." Mara tried to explain. Up to this day, she was still not sure what had prompted her actions that day - a prodding from the Force, undoubtedly. "It was an impulse that made me bring the _Wild Karrde_ out of hyperspace at that moment and I had no idea that we would find an x-wing adrift and certainly not Luke Skywalker in it."

"So you _did_ try to kill Dad?"

"We'll get to that part soon, Ben. Now, Uncle Talon picked me up but he didn't know what to do with me because he wasn't on the side of the New Republic or of the Empire so when Thrawn came to visit him, he told Mommy to hide me in a warehouse out of sight."

"To keep you safe from Thrawn?" Ben questioned.

"Yes, although I didn't understand it that way at the time. And that's why I did everything I could to escape. I took a skypray and I took off."

"And I went after Daddy into the forest in another skypray. I chased him for a little while and then we crashed."

"You shot Dad down?" Ben asked animatedly. This was more like the story he was expecting to hear.

"No, your Dad hit the trees and I was too close to him and hit him from behind."

"Did you get hurt?" Samira then asked with concern.

"A little, I hurt my ankle."

"I just got some bruises."

"Did you have to carry Mommy, Daddy?" Serena questioned, smiling widely.

"No, but I would have liked that."

"Oh, please." Mara snorted. "That might seem like a good idea now, but back then it was unthinkable."

"It wasn't unthinkable. It crossed my mind a few times, but your blaster discouraged me from saying anything."

"Did you shoot Dad with your blaster, Mom?"

"NO!" Mara replied in an offended tone, forgetting how many times that thought had crossed her mind at the time.

"Mom never shot me with a blaster."

"With something else, then?"

"Only bright green glances and defying smirks." Luke replied with a smirk of his own.

"Just so you kids are clear, the only one that got carried around in the forest of Myrkr was Artoo." Mara explained before one of the kids would thing to ask if she got to carry Luke around.

"Artoo?" All three kids asked because their parents had forgotten to mention that Artoo was with Luke at the time.

"Yes, kids. Artoo was with me in the x-wing and we escaped together. So, he was there too."

"So, even though we hadn't flown in the skyprays for long, we still managed to go pretty deep into the forest and because I didn't know what Uncle Talon was telling Thrawn about us, we couldn't go back to the base. We decided to go on the opposite direction, towards the city. But we did send a message to Uncle Talon." Mara explained while she tried to get up from the couch. It was time to go to the 'fresher again. She exited the living room, but signaled Luke to go on and the kids turned back to Dad expectantly.

"You sent the message to Uncle Talon so he wouldn't worry, right Daddy?"

"That's right, Serena! So he wouldn't worry." Luke replied, ruffling her blond curls. "After that we walked for a few days and when we got to Hyllyard City we discovered that there were stormtroopers waiting for us there."

"Wait a minute," Ben interrupted again, "Mom wanted to kill you but didn't shoot you and you were alone for days? Did she kick your butt?"

"No."

"Poke you with her lightsaber?"

"No, and it was my lightsaber. I just let her hold it."

"Stab you with her vibroblade?"

"No."

"Poison?"

"No."

"Strangle you?"

"That would be a no, too."

"Push you off somewhere high?"

"No, Ben."

"Did she try to tickle you to death, Daddy?"

"Not at that time, Samira." Luke laughed at his daughter's suggestion.

"Did Mom tried to kill you in any other way I didn't say?" Ben returned.

"No, Ben. The answer you're looking for is - Mom never actually tried to kill me, she just talked about it a lot."

"So, you knew Mom wanted to kill you?"

"Yes, I did. Mom made it a point to tell me that right up front. As a matter of fact she introduced herself very much like this: _I'm Mara Jade and I want to kill you, Skywalker_."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Ok!" Ben answered, his curiosity finally appeased.

At that moment, Mara returned and wobbled back to her seat.

"Are you alright, Mara?" Luke asked with concern, as Mara seemed even more uncomfortable than before.

"My back's killing me." She said and took his hand as support to sit down. "Where were we?"

"I was just telling the kids that you never actually did anything that would end in my demise."

"What's _demise_, Daddy?"

"Demise means death, Serena."

"Well, kids - I've actually tried to kill your Dad many, many times over the years." Mara declared with no hint of playfulness, gaining everybody's full attention.

"I do it every time we play _Rebels vs Imps_ on the Vii. I usually succeed." She clarified and was greeted by laughs all around.

"What happened when you got to the city?" Ben asked, reminding them that this story was far from over.

"Like I said, when we got to Hyllyard City, there were stormtroopers waiting for us. But so were Uncle Han and Uncle Lando, 'cause they were visiting Uncle Talon too." Luke continued the story.

"Uncle Talon is a very popular man." Serena remarked candidly.

"Yeah, he is." Luke agreed wholeheartedly and then finished: "There was a fight and we won."

"Did you ask Mommy to marry you then, Daddy?" Serena inquired. It seemed to her romantic persona that this would have been a perfect way to end the story. But this story was far from over.

"No, Honey. Back then Mommy was still very much convinced that she wanted to kill me. And then we all went our separate ways."

Serena's disappointed "Oh" made Ben come to comfort her.

"It's okay, Serena. They got together again soon. Right, Mom and Dad?"

"That's right, Ben!"

- TBC...


	3. Chapter 3

_Part 3_

Before moving on to the next part of the story, Luke thought it was a good time for a hot chocolate break, so he went to the kitchen and quickly prepped his favorite drink.

He was a little worried about Mara since it seemed her back pain was not the least bit alleviated, even with use of the Force. Still, he did not want to be the one to suggest they should call Cilghal because he knew Mara would not take it well. She had been through two pregnancies before this one and would know if healer attention was required. Then again, Mara had never made it quite to the full term of a pregnancy before; Ben had been born over one week early and the twins at more than a month and none of the births had occurred under normal circumstances.

Luke returned a few minutes later with five mugs filled with the rich flavored drink and sat down again next to his wife and kids.

"Tell us about when you and Mom met again, Dad." Ben then asked.

"Ok! That would be on Jomark." Luke said, putting his arm around Mara and taking a sip from his cup. "You kids remember what I said about C'baoth?"

"The dark Jedi that was Thrawn's friend?"

"Exactly, Samira. Now, at the time I didn't know that they were friends, so when I heard there was a Jedi master out there, I went looking for him to ask his to train me."

"Oh-ho!" The twins exclaimed.

"Yeah, oh-ho is right," Mara said and picked up the storyline. "At this time, Thrawn was very suspicious about how Dad had escaped from Myrkr and he came after Uncle Talon and our crew because he thought we had played him. He was right, we had. So, he came after us and found me and I made a deal with him: he would leave Karrde alone and I would tell him where he could find almost a full fleet of ships, big old Dreadnauts known as the _Katana_ fleet, for his own Imperial fleet. He agreed, but he was lying. Instead he followed me and captured Uncle Talon. I felt very bad and swore I would help Uncle Talon get away."

At that point Mara took a moment to take a few sips from her own mug and build suspense.

"I knew, however, that I couldn't rescue Uncle Talon on my own and the only person I could think of to help me was the man I wanted to kill - Daddy."

"Cool!" Ben chortled and the girls applauded.

"So I looked Daddy up."

"On the HoloNet?" Samira proposed, making both parents snort.

"No. I had overheard, over at Thrawn's, that Daddy was on Jomark with C'baoth and that C'baoth was working with the Empire. I got myself a ship and I went to get Daddy."

"When Mommy got to Jomark, I was starting to think that C'baoth was not well."

"Not well!" Mara remarked. "That's the understatement of the century, C'baoth was completely insane. He tried to knock me out of the skies as soon as I got there."

"And you held yourself very well, dear."

"And saved your farmboy butt." She added teasingly, getting giggles from the kids.

"For which my butt is eternally grateful." Luke replied and kissed his wife.

Their display of affection brought upon more giggling from the girls and rolling of eyes from Ben.

"What happened next?" The boy insisted.

"C'baoth did not want me to leave with Mommy. He wanted to keep me there no matter what, but then Artoo knocked him out." Luke said.

"Way to go Artoo!" Ben cheered and the girls clapped.

Luke laughed and resumed the story.

"So, next we went to rescue Uncle Talon on the _Chimaera_, that was Thrawn's ship. We disguised ourselves and took a shuttle in. Once there we snuck in and searched for him."

"Of course, by the time we found him, the Imps were onto us and cut our exit." Mara contributed, unconsciously caressing her swollen stomach.

"How did you get away?" Ben questioned, his hot chocolate forgotten on the floor by his side.

"We took the _Millennium Falcon_." Mara answered, anticipating the kids' questioning looks. She was not disappointed as all three stared agape at her.

"It turned out," Luke explained, "that Aunt Leia had taken the _Falcon_ to Endor to rendezvous with the Noghri and had left it there. Thrawn had found it and picked it up."

"Where was Uncle Han? Did he know about it?" Ben then asked. It did not sit well with him that Uncle Han would let Aunt Leia leave the _Falcon_ like that.

"Not at the time, he was hanging out with Uncle Lando." Luke told him. "I managed to convince him later that it was the will of the Force, that the _Falcon_ was waiting for us there. He calmed down after that."

"Clever Daddy!" Samira stated proudly.

"Did you make up with Daddy then, Mommy?" Serena asked.

"Not yet, Honey. But I did say thank you."

"You did?" Luke inquired, turning to his wife.

"Yes, Skywalker, I did." Mara stated in her most no-arguments-allowed way.

"Mommy said thank you."

"That's right! And after that we went our separate ways again."

Loud disheartened sighs were heard from the twins before Mara added: "But not for long."

"Yeah, because our next step was to stop Thrawn from getting his hands on all those ships. So we teamed up again, only this time it wasn't just the two of us, we brought all our friends."

"Astral!" Ben cheered.

"Well, it would have been if, when we got there, Thrawn's people hadn't already made out with most of the ships. But we still put up a fight and kept them from taking the rest." Mara recounted.

"Yeah, we didn't exactly win that one and Mommy got hurt."

"Oh, no!" The girls cried out.

"It's ok, darlings. It just knocked me out, quite literally, for a month."

"What happened?" Ben asked with concern. Anything that would put his mom out for a whole month had to have been bad.

"I had to go EV, but my ejection seat went right through a Dreadnaught's ion cannon and it fried my life-support system as well as my homing beacon. I was adrift in the middle of all that debris. Luckily for me, the only person in the galaxy that could have found me was right there." Mara said, smiling at her husband and the children understood whom she was talking about.

"Daddy, did you kiss Mommy to wake her up?" Serena asked, another one of her romantic ideals surfacing.

"No, silly. That only happens on those girly books of yours." Ben reprimanded his sister and she pouted.

"No, I didn't, Honey." Luke stepped in, giving his son an admonishing glance. "But I wanted to, very much. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to linger at Mommy's side. You see during that battle, we found out that Thrawn had gotten himself some clones, so I had to spend the whole month investigating where they came from."

"Ha ha! To think, you would've had better luck if you had stuck around." Mara remarked.

"Why?" Ben asked, raising his brows.

"Because I knew where Thrawn was getting his clones."

Proud smiles blossomed on the faces of all three kids - "Mom rocks!"

"Yeah, I do. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. You see a few days after I woke up, Jaina and Jacen were born and somehow Thrawn and C'baoth heard about it and decided it was time to get the babies."

"How did -"

"- they know?" The twins asked.

"One of the old Emperor's toys Thrawn got a hold of was an old palace wide eavesdropping device. He was listening in to everything we talked about." Luke answered.

"Did you know about that one too, Mom?"

"No, not that one. Aunt Leia and Ghent figured that one out by themselves." Mara continued. "Anyway, Thrawn ordered the babies kidnapped."

"OH, NO!" The girls' faces were now frantic with panic.

"Not to worry," Luke assured them. "Mommy was there and stopped the bad guys."

"YAY!" They cheered loudly and applauded.

"And after that, Mommy told Aunt Leia about the Emperor's fortress and the clone cylinders."

"And that's when we went to Waylaaaaaa-"

"Mara, what is it?" Luke immediately turned to his wife, his heart tightening in his chest. He had felt the sharp pain almost as clearly as Mara had. Within a second all three kids had surrounded their mom and dad and were repeating their dad's concerns.

"Ouch!" Mara exclaimed, trying to catch her breath. "I think it's time."

"Time for what, Mom? Are you alright?" Ben asked, just as worried as his father. Mara had always known that her son would turn out to be just as overprotective.

"The baby's coming. Luke you need to call Cilghal and get someone to watch the kids." Mara stated, taking charge since the only other adult in the room seemed to have frozen in place and was just squeezing her hand. "Go, Skywalker!"

"Right! Call Cilghal, then call Leia." He recapitulated.

"But Mommy, we wanna go with you." Samira affirmed.

"Oh, Sweetie. It's getting late and you kids should have been in bed already, you can come and help tomorrow. And then you can meet you new baby brother."

"But we wanna help, Mommy." Samira pressed.

"The best way to help is to be good to Aunt Leia." Mara stated, then turned to her son. "Ben, get that bag that's in the corner of my room."

"Ok, Mom." He immediately left to do what he was told.

Ben returned carrying the bag just as Luke came back from the comm station.

"Alright, Cilghal is on her way to the Med Ward and will wait for us there and Leia is on her way here."

"Let's go then… Ooohhh!" She stopped for a moment as another contraction ran through her. "The little guy is in a hurry."

"Ok, let's go. Ben – you're in charge until Aunt Leia gets here." Luke stated and helped Mara get up.

As she was exiting the room, Mara's waters broke.

"Oh, st… blasters." Mara swallowed the curse when she saw three pairs of kids' eyes fixed on her. "Be good!" She added for good measure just before stepping outside, leaning heavily on her husband.

-TBC…


	4. Chapter 4

_Part 4_

About five minutes after Luke and Mara left, Han and Leia arrived. The children were all sitting in the living room, happily commenting on the story they had heard and wondering what was supposed to happen next.

When their aunt and uncle came through the door, all three kids zoomed in on them and made them sit down on the same seats their parents had vacated. They had already decided that there would be no bedtime until they were told the rest of the story.

"Kids, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to go to bed right now," their Aunt Leia stated. "That way, the rest of the night will just fly by and before you know it, you can go see your new brother."

But the twins were relentless and turned on their sweet angelical voices, with their matching green eyes that no one could say no to.

""No, it won't Auntie Leia, because we won't be able -"

"- to fall asleep until we know the rest of the story. Please Auntie Leia -"

"- please, with lots of hot chocolate on top."

"Fine! But don't call me 'auntie', it makes me feel old." Leia replied

"Yay! We'll get the hot chocolate."

And the girls ran to the kitchen to fetch more of the delicious drink, followed by Ben who was supposed to help.

"I think I've just been manipulated by five-year-olds. They got away with not going to bed, getting a story and more permission to drink more hot chocolate." Leia commented to Han.

"Yeah, don' worry. They're your brother's kids; we're allowed to spoil them. It serves him right for making us babysit at this hour. So what is this story we're supposed to finish?"

"I have no idea."

A couple of minutes later, the three Skywalker children were back, Ben carrying a tray of hot chocolate mugs ready for drinking.

"So, what's this story you kids want?" Han asked cautiously.

"How Mom and Dad met." Ben answered promptly.

"Oh, great," Han snorted. This was probably the one story he and Leia did not want to be telling the Skywalker kids. Just how much were they supposed to tell them? Were they supposed to sugar-coat the account or tell everything as it had happened? Were they even supposed to mention the nature of the dynamics between Mara and Luke at that time?

"And where exactly in the story did your parents left off?" Leia inquired. Maybe it they could bypass the weird parts.

"Thrawn just tried to kidnap Jacen and Jaina but Mom stopped him." Ben answered proudly.

"And they were going to _Waylaah_." Samira chipped in, trying to be helpful.

"_Waylaah_?" Han repeated, frowning.

"I think you mean Wayland." Leia suggested and the girl shrugged.

"Ok, so buckle up kids, 'cause the _Falcon_ is taking off for Wayland." Han cried out and the kids cheered loudly.

"Did they go on the _Falcon_?" Serena asked.

"_We_ went on the _Falcon_ - me, your Mom and Dad, Chewie, Lando, Artoo and Goldenrod."

"What about you, Aunt Leia?" Ben asked.

"Leia joined us later, kids, 'cause she wasn't done with the diaper changing yet. Outch!" Han had cut in before she could answer and earned a slap in return, one that was sure to leave a bruise.

"That was not it. I stayed behind because there was a crisis there too – the Delta Source."

"Yeah, sure, sweetheart. It had nothing to do with the babies, it was the Delta Source." Han sarcastically retorted.

"Ok, fine. I stayed behind because of the babies. But I did help to crack the Delta Source and then there was that whole problem with the Thrawn's asteroids."

Now the kids were confused. "Asteroids?" Ben questioned while Serena asked about the Delta Source.

"The Delta Source was a listening device that the Emperor had planted in strategic places around the palace." Leia began explaining.

"Oh, that was how Thrawn was eavesdropping on you." Ben said.

"That's right and thanks to Ghent and Winter we were able to crack it. As for the asteroids, they were one of Thrawn's most convoluted plans."

"What's convoluted?" The twins asked at the same time.

"It means complicated. And it was complicated because Thrawn fitted cloaking devices on asteroids and then brought them into Coruscant's orbit. We didn't know how many or where they were, so we were virtually besieged. Ships couldn't land or take off, it was very chaotic. This happened right after the _Falcon_ left."

"Lucky us!" Han commented.

"What's a cloaking device?" The twins asked again, but this time they got their answer from Ben.

"They're for hiding stuff, like the Jedi Stealth Xs. How did you get rid of them?" The boy turned back to his aunt, frowning.

"We started by locating them one by one. But it was a very slow process, but we had a breakthrough when Karrde came over demanding to see your mom. He didn't know she had left already. Then he told me what he had found out about Thrawn's plans and that included how many asteroids there were. As it turned out, they weren't that many and we had gotten them all already."

"Movin' on, the _Falcon_ had taken off and we still didn't know where we were going. Your mom was the only one who had some idea of where the Emperor's stronghold was… you kids do know about the Emperor's fortress, right? What about your Mom and the Emperor?"

All the kids nodded and Han continued, relieved: "You see, she had only been there once, when she was a kid, but she was sure she could figure out the way using the computer. And she did."

"Mommy's so smart!" the twins declared in unison and Ben signaled his approval.

"That she is, kids." Han concurred, taking a sip from his hot chocolate only to frown at its sweetness. It was definitely not his kind of drink.

"So, when we got to Wayland," Han continued, "we had to leave the _Falcon_ real far away, so we wouldn't alert the imps. We had to trek through those bushes for days. That was when your dad started training your mom in the Force."

"Did Mom still wanna kill Dad then?" Ben inquired.

"Sort of, I think." Han replied.

"I don't think so," Leia cut in. "Mara was just so used to thinking that she did, it still took a while for her to realize that she really didn't. But what's really important was that your mom ended up saving your dad and the rest of us."

"Leia, you're getting ahead of the story!"

Han's reprimand did nothing to hinder the bright grins on the kids' faces.

"The story went like this: we were walking through the Wayland woods, made a few friends among the locals, then joined up with some of the Noghri who had decided they didn't want to miss out on all the fun, when Luke notices that the mountain where the Emperor's place was looked strange – kinda dark. That's when he and your mom figured out that there had to be ysalamiry there. You know, 'cause the place looked like Myrkr. They also figured out that crazy C'baoth was there waiting for us. 'Course that didn't worry them, 'cause if they didn't have the Force, then neither did C'baoth and we could handle him just fine."

"Meanwhile," Leia interrupted, "back on Coruscant, Karrde was telling me that Thrawn was using ysalamiry with the cloning chambers to be able to produce clones extra fast. This worried me greatly because that meant there had to be ysalamiry on Wayland, and that meant Luke and Mara would be unable to use the Force there. So I convinced Karrde to take me to Wayland. Fortunately, the Noghri that had gone ahead had relayed the location of Mount Tantiss back to the ones that had stayed with me, so our trip was a lot faster."

The kids' eyes were wide with attention and anticipation , hanging on their Uncle Han's every word and Leia thought it was funny how, as it turned out, it was not that hard to keep them quiet after all – all it took was a good story.

"When we finally came up to the mountain, we got our new friends - the ones we had made along the way - to create distractions so that we could sneak in. They did and we were in."

"It was about then that I arrived." Leia announced.

"Yeah, just in time for the fireworks."

"No one can say I don't have good timing."

"There were fireworks?" Samira asked, eager for them to carry on with the story.

"Yeah, big loud ones." Han replied. "So, when we got there, we split up: your mom and dad went to the throne room to find a self destruct mechanism Mara was sure was there, while the rest of us went to set up charges all over the place. It was then that Artoo found out that C'baoth was held up in the throne room and we had no way to contact Luke or Mara because the comm links were down. A few minutes later, your Aunt Leia came bursting in with Karrde and told us that the Force had come back in full. We immediately knew Luke and Mara were in trouble."

"So we rushed to the throne room to help," Leia picked up the narrative and watched as the kids eyes switched to her. "When we got there Luke was battling himself."

"Huh?" The kids voiced, sounding confused.

"As it turned out, C'baoth had made himself a Luke clone and was having a sweet ol' time watching them fight it out." Han clarified.

"After we got there, C'baoth started threatening us and saying he wanted to make me his apprentice. Your Uncle Han, here, lost it and tried to shoot him. And then all hell broke loose with C'baoth Force-screaming like a mad man and throwing Force-lightning at us - not pretty." Leia winced at the still painful memory, remembering how close her infants had been to becoming orphans that day. "Just when I thought we were all doomed, your dad addressed C'baoth and offered him a deal. Luke would stay with him and be his willing apprentice, if he let the rest of us go."

"But the old crackpot didn't go for it and ordered the Luke clone to start attacking your dad again, that was when your mom decided to take action and finally put the Emperor's last command aside, or to work depending on the point of view. She called Leia's lightsaber to her hand and lashed out and killed Luke, leaving us with the clone to fill in his shoes." Han declared dead-panned and waited for the kids' reactions. All three were staring at him in a mix of disbelief and shock.

"HAN!" Leia screamed, horrified and spanked him again. "Uncle Han is just kidding, kids. Your mom killed the clone and saved your dad's life."

"Sorry." Han apologized, still chuckling. "Anyway, C'baoth was not happy and decided it was a good time to bring the entire mountain crumbling down on us. In the meantime, Lando and Chewie had already rigged the entire complex for detonation and called me to find out what we were up to. I told them to go ahead with the plan and hope for the best. I was still hoping that Luke could take care of C'baoth and get us out of there. I was wrong."

"What happened?" Ben asked, in a half-voice. He knew the story would eventually end well, after all his family was there to prove it, but still he couldn't help but be worried about their safety against such a foe.

"Your mom got C'baoth." Han affirmed in a very anticlimactic tone. "Then there was the typical dark side explosion we have come to know so well over the years. For future reference, kids - try not to kill Sith indoors. It's a bad idea."

"And with all that taken care of and the rest of the mountain about to explode too, we thought it was a good time to leave. End of story." Leia concluded.

"Did Mommy and Daddy make out after that?" Serena asked innocently, causing the adults to snort loudly and Han to blurt "probably".

"I think you mean '_make up'_, Honey. And yes they did." Leia answered.

"Did they kiss?" The girl insisted.

"Which brings us back to the '_making out'_." Han snorted again, getting questioning glances from the kids and one more slap from Leia.

"I don't know about that, Serena." Leia answered the girl again. "But soon after that your dad gave your mom his old lightsaber, the one that she still has and used to belong to grandpa Anakin."

"And then they were married?" Serena kept asking, since she was still not content with the answer.

"Not for a long time after that." Han replied.

"Why?" Now both girls were asking.

"Because your parents are the two most stubborn people I ever met. Present company excluded." Han stated firmly, dodging another slap from his wife.

"But how long did it take? A whole year?" Samira inquired, staying on topic.

"Try ten." Han enlightened her.

The girls were dumbfounded with his answer. Ten years! That was a life time - two lifetimes in their case.

Taking the opportunity while his sisters were still digesting that piece of news, Ben asked something a little more practical.

"What happened to Thrawn?"

"Thrawn was dealt with by the Noghri, Ben. He did not outlive C'baoth."

Satisfied with Aunt Leia's answer, the boy settled and yawned. It was far past his and his sisters' bedtime.

Noticing this, Leia led them to bed.

"But wait," Samira still struggled, "how did Mom and Dad finally end up getting married? And why did it take ten years?"

"Samira," her Aunt Leia said, "that is a whole other story and you should ask it to your parents. Now go to bed and tomorrow we can go see your mom and dad and the baby. Then you can ask them all about those ten years."

"But Aunt Leia, it's already tomorrow." The girl remarked, pointing at the chrono.

"Leia meant in the morning, kid. Now go!"

After tucking the kids in, the Solos relaxed on the couch.

"These kids sure bring back memories." Han stated and put his arm around his wife. "Hey, what do you say, we could still-"

"No!"

"But we're still… You're Luke's age and he's just having a new baby, right now."

"No, Han. We've raised our kids. Our kids have kids of their own, we're grandparents."

"Just think about it."

"No, Han!"

-TBC...


	5. Chapter 5

_Part 5_

It was early morning when Luke returned to his home. It had been a long night but it had been worth it. Luke was a happy, happy man.

After four hours of labor in which the only complications had been the ice chips that had somehow found their way into his tunic and a certain amount of damage to his artificial hand, Mara had given birth to a very healthy six pound and ten ounces baby boy who had remained nameless for the next hour and a half- the time it took for his parents to agree on a name. Eventually, it came down to a credit flip between Luke's choice and Mara's. Mara's choice won and Luke had only to oblige. The new member of the Skywalker family would be named Garen.

The rest of the night had been spent in blissful cuddling and slumber, and feeding and diaper changing. But now that the morning had come, it was time to introduce the baby to the rest of the family. Luke knew his kids would be asleep at this hour but had no doubt that they'd be onto him within a minute of him walking through the front door.

The first thing Luke spotted as he entered his house was his sister snuggled with her husband on the living room couch. They looked adorable; Han was lying down on his back on the couch, his feet hanging from one side and both his arms wrapped around Leia while she was lying half on her side and half on him, with her head resting on his chest and her own arms holding him tightly. All Luke could do at the moment was to take out his holocam and snap a few holopics of the snoozing couple.

About two seconds later, the snoozing couple was snapped awake by a wave of cheering kids.

"Daddy, Daddy!"

"Dad!"

"Morning, kids!" Luke greeted and hugged each member of his bouncing offspring, then turned to his sister and brother-in-law. "Good morning, Leia and Han."

"Hey, kid! So, where's junior?" Han immediately got up to give Luke a mighty pat on the back.

"Dad, how's Mom?" Ben asked at the same time.

"Mom's great and Cilghal said she will be able to come back home tomorrow. Everything went well and you kids have a new brother." Luke said, punching a few keys on his datapad to show holos of mom and baby. "See."

"Congratulations, Luke." Leia hugged her brother.

"He's so tiny." Serena stated, grabbing hold of the datapad before anyone else could.

"He's kind of wrinkly." Ben said, looking over Serena's shoulder.

"He looks just like _you_ when you were born, Ben." Luke remarked, ruffling the boy's hair.

"What's his name? When can we see him?" Samira questioned excitindly.

"His name is Garen and you'll be able to see him right after breakfast. Now go get washed and dressed so we can eat."

After the kids ran back to their rooms and the 'fresher, Luke turned back to Leia and Han.

"Were they any trouble?" He asked, smiling.

"Not at all, they're fun kids." Han replied.

Meanwhile Leia had already picked up Luke's datapad and was studying the baby's holo with much attention.

"He's adorable, Luke." She declared. "What's he like?"

"Great! He looks just like Ben, but is a much calmer baby. We might actually have some good nights soon."

"And everything went well?"

"Swimmingly, thank the Force!" Luke's smile widened even more as relief flowed through him. "But there was a time there where I actually thought Mara wanted to kill me."

"I remember those times." Han stated, glancing at Leia who was still looking at little Garen's holos. "Which reminds me, nice time to tell a certain story to those kids of yours - just before dumpin' them on us."

"Oh, yeah. Did they ask too many questions?"

"Nothin' we couldn't handle. By the way, if they ask you if you're a clone, confirm it, would ya."

"What?"

"Han told the kids that Mara killed the real Luke and that you were the clone." Leia informed him, smirking. Now she wasn't sure which was funnier, the kids' expressions the night before or Luke's at that moment. "Don't worry, I set them strait."

"Yeah, but just in case, let's not tell Mara about that. Alright?" Han proposed, suddenly concerned about his future well being.

"Well then, you better hope they don't ask her about it." Luke stated, not feeling very sympathetic. "I'm gonna go check on them."

With that, Luke disappeared into his home's upper floor.

~x~

About an hour later, the Skywalkers and Solos entered the Jedi Academy Maternity Ward where they found Mara holding baby Garen who had just woken up.

The girls were ecstatic to meet their baby brother and had to be constantly reminded that he was not a doll they could dress up and play with. As for Ben, he was noticeably relieved to see his mom was okay, not wanting to leave her side for long. The boy's behavior made Luke wonder just how much did Ben remember about his sisters' birth and maybe even, to some degree, his own.

But still, children were children and there's only so much time they can hang out among adults and a baby without getting restless, so no one thought it strange that, after lunch, the Skywalker children went off to find entertainment somewhere else.

~x~

"Where are we going, Ben?" Samira asked her brother while he led her and her twin down a corridor.

Ben stopped and turned to the two five-year-olds. "You two wanna know the rest of Mom and Dad's story, right?"

After the two girls acquiesced, he explained: "Mom and Dad are too busy now and Aunt Leia and Uncle Han are helping them out, but I remembered who else knows the story and will be thrilled to tell us."

"Who?" The twins asked simultaneously.

"Threepio and Artoo."

The girls' huge grins told Ben just what they thought of his plan.

It didn't take them long to locate the two droids and as soon as Ben suggested to C-3PO that he'd tell them the rest of the story, the protocol droid was more than happy to oblige. So the children found a secluded place where they could listen to the droid's recount of their parents' tale.

The story told by Threepio took on another dimension since the droid did not summarize or sugar-coat anything. The protocol droid told them everything, even the parts he wasn't familiar with and would just translate from Artoo's account, and pretty soon, the children were learning things they really had no business knowing.

~x~

It was almost dinner time when Mara turned to her husband asking about the kids' whereabouts.

"They must still be in class." He answered, frowning. He had assumed that, when the children disappeared for so long, that they had just gone to their classes although in retrospect that really seemed very unlike them.

Apparently that last thought of his was shared by his wife, who had just raised one of her delicate and menacing brows.

"I'll go find them." Luke said, getting up and quickly walking to the door.

It did not take Luke long to find them since the kids, having sensed their parents' distress and because they had already exhausted Threepio with questions, were already making their way back.

"Where have you been?" Luke asked, trying not to sound angry.

"Threepio was telling us a story, Daddy." Samira answered readily.

"All this time?"

"It was ten years worth of story, Dad." Ben volunteered and his father immediately understood what the story was.

"Yeah, but I don't think he told it right," Serena said, frowning in a very Luke-like way. "Treepio can be very confusing."

"And why is that?" Luke asked, after picking up the girl and placing her firmly on his shoulder.

"Some things he didn't know how to explain and others didn't make any sense."

"Like what, Honey?" Luke asked and took the girl's hand in his, leading the way back to the maternity ward.

"Why would you wanna marry a dead Jedi, if you loved Mommy?"

"Oh, Gods," the Jedi Master murmured. This was not good, not good at all.

"And why did you go work for the Emperor's clones?" Samira said disconcertingly.

Scratch that - this was far worse.

"And why would you start the Academy on Yavin if there was a Sith ghost there?" Ben contributed.

"I didn't know there was a Sith ghost there, Ben. And after we got rid of it, I saw no point on moving." Luke replied defensively. He couldn't believe he'd have to answer these questions from his children. He could not take them back to Mara like this, she would have him impaled for it - right after she dismantled the droids with her lightsaber.

"Ok, kids. I'll make you a deal - you have ten minutes right now to ask whatever you want, but you can't tell any of this to Mommy."

"She doesn't know?" Samira asked, confused about her father's reasons.

"She doesn't like to talk about it and we don't want to upset her, right?"

"Ok." They all said.

"The first answer is: I didn't realize how much I loved your Mom when I met Callista and I felt lonely. The second is: I thought I could control the Emperor if I was by his side, stop him from doing harm - it was a terrible idea and I was completely wrong. Now, what else do you want to know?"

The rest of the five minutes went by very slowly as Luke answered questions like _what's a Sith holocron,_ _where's Almania, did Mom date Uncle Lando or not, did he have more girlfriends_ and _what were the Corellians so mad about_, but when they were over all three kids felt a lot better and promised again they would not ask their Mom any questions about any of this.

The last question Luke had to answer was one of Serena's.

"I love your mother with all my heart and soul and every fiber of my being. When she told me she loved me too, it felt like the water raining on parched land. It was the happiest moment of my life, only matched by welcoming you kids into our family. I regret nothing because all I've been through has led me here."

~x~

That night, after the Solos had taken the Skywalker kids home with them and Mara had fallen asleep, Luke held his new son in his arms and softly spoke to him.

"Hey, pal! Listen up 'cause I'm going to tell the whole story of how I met your mother…"

- THE END -

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><p><em><strong>Thank you all so much for your reviews and support, this was a fun story to write.<strong>_


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